COSTCO INTRODUCED Kirkland Signature™ products nearly 20 years ago. The idea
was to create a line of “signature” products, and
Kirkland, Washington, was where the company had its home base at that time.

Why invest in our own line of private-label products? There are several reasons,
explains Craig Jelinek, Costco president and
chief executive officer. With Kirkland Signature, Costco can:

• Develop popular items with wide appeal
to expand sales volume

• Control the quality of the product

• Drive down prices on national brands

• Control the packaging

The name
behind
the label

Kirkland Signature is a sign
of quality and value

BABY WIPES have been part of Costco’s
inventory since the company began, but many
brands weren’t up to snuff: The wipes would
rip, or they were too small or members had to
use a lot of them to tackle the tough jobs.
Costco buyers saw an opportunity to offer
parents something better. So in 1995, Kirkland
Signature Baby Wipes were created, providing
a larger, softer, thicker wipe that was superior
to everything else on the market.

Costco partnered with Nice-Pak (which
launched wipes in the 1950s) to develop
Kirkland Signature baby wipes. In the years
since then, Nice-Pak and Costco have brought
market-leading upgrades to the wipes, their
formulation and packaging.

Today, the wipes are made of Tencel, a
plant-based fiber made from the pulp of sus-tainably-managed eucalyptus trees. This
makes them softer, stronger and more absorbent. The hypoallergenic wipes, made with
aloe and vitamin E, now have a new, extra-gentle formula.

Member requests have also broughtproduct upgrades. “Whisper soft” packagingreduced the loud crinkling noise that had thepotential to disturb calm babies.

Don’t have a baby? Use the wipes for
quick cleanups at picnics, messy barbecues or
even wiping down Fido after a romp in the
dog park. So whatever may need wiping,
members can rest assured that Kirkland
Signature is up for the task at hand.

—Hana Medina

Baby wipes

• Achieve pallet efficiencies. For example,
when the jars containing Kirkland Signature cashews were changed from
round to square, the number of jars that
could fit on a pallet increased from 288
to 432, saving 600 truckloads per year.

That’s what Kirkland Signature productsat Costco are all about. In cases where the rightproduct isn’t available—either because it hasn’tbeen created yet or because it doesn’t representa value to members—Costco creates its own.It’s happened with everything from men’sdress shirts and pet food to facial tissue andhealth-care items. Just about every productcategory and department has some KirklandSignature representation.

“We will always be known for namebrands such as Michelin, Nikon and Crest,”Craig says, “but we will continue to augmentour product offerings with our own KirklandSignature items.”“The working rule followed by Costcobuyers is that all Kirkland Signature productsmust be equal to or better than the nationalbrands, and must offer a savings to our mem-bers,” adds Doug Schutt, executive vice presi-dent of Costco. “We know we have met thisgoal when consumer groups consistently rateus highly compared to national brands.”

Another rule is continuous improvement.
“We’re constantly looking at Kirkland Signature
items, revisiting them with an eye to making
them better,” says Jeff Lyons, Costco’s senior
vice president of fresh foods.

In the traditional marketplace, brands are
built over the years with expensive advertising
campaigns built around cornerstone products.

In contrast, the Kirkland Signature brand hasgrown by this formula: Offer high-qualityproducts at great prices, and let the membersdecide. “With Kirkland Signature, the focus isalways on quality,” says Jeff. In other words, theperfect product, from scratch.The items profiled on pages 39, 41 and 43are just a sample of the Kirkland Signatureproducts you’ll find at Costco.—T. Foster JonesKirkland Signature